Year 3, Spring 1, Week 1

Year 3 had a very exciting topic launch morning today when they came in to find that the mountain on the English working wall was actually a volcano and had erupted in the night! This had caused an earthquake which had created mayhem in the classroom!

The children had to step carefully around the cracks and listen out for more rumbling; if they heard the noise, it was time for earthquake drill.

After the school’s beginning of term Mass, the children experimented with different materials to build structures that they thought would withstand an earthquake. They then moved their ‘tectonic plates’ (whiteboards) to create an earthquake, discussed the results and decided which buildings would work best. Finally, all the children wrote what they already know about volcanoes and earthquakes and what they would like to know, so we now have lots of interesting questions on our topic board.

Compared to this morning, the rest of the week seems quite tame but we have been working hard.

In English we have been looking at the differences between fiction and non-fiction, examining the features of the latter.

Maths this week has been based on recall of times tables and using visualisation to aid recall.

We have started our new RE topic – Journeys. This week we discussed the journey through the year, whether home, school or Church and reflected this in drawings on footprints to add to the class display.